Top of the World to You
by Lewd Concubine
Summary: Orochimaru and the Hougyoku plus Naraku and his complete Shikon Jewel. That can't be good. But when three overlords gather together, what is?


**Note: **Situational OOC likely. This is complete and total wish fulfillment. Ymmv on the merit or humor: see previous statement.

**Top of the World to You**

**by: Ryoko (Lewd Concubine)**

Aizen served the tea.

When he was finished, he sat at the head of the table. Orochimaru sat to his right and Naraku at Aizen's left. They exchanged pleasantries, but none breached any real talk of their forthcoming alliance until they were all well settled.

"Imagine, if you will, the consequences." Aizen was the one to break the companionable silence that settled over them.

Orochimaru smirked. "You're giving them far too much credit, don't you think?" After all, it wouldn't occur to anyone that _these three_ could put their respective differ-no, in this case it was the fact that they were all so very similar that might have been the problem. In any case, Orochimaru thought, it wouldn't occur to any of their enemies that they could ever work together. One would surely betray the others. Orochimaru might have agreed once. Except he had learned a lot from his own death and displacement into this world.

Not all allies were disposable.

"We wouldn't want that." Naraku's smirk-it was like looking in a mirror-suggested the opposite of what he'd just said.

Aizen only smiled. Aizen was always smiling that same smile that Orochimaru knew so well. How many times had he strung another along with that expression? When Orochimaru thought about that, he couldn't help mirroring it. He was a man of subtleties and this was his reminder.

"I suppose it doesn't really matter," he said.

Aizen sipped his tea. The three settled into silence again. This time, Orochimaru broke it.

"Although…" He made a noise in his throat and did not continue. So long had he climbed toward his goal alone. It was odd sharing it. It would be even worse sharing his godhood. But that was a small price to pay for certainty.

Naraku's eyes bored into his own.

"What _marvelous_ darkness," he said.

Orochimaru never forgot, but was again reminded how similar they were in that regard. Naraku knew what it was to be steeped in shadow. Indeed, they were painted the same color. Too bad Orochimaru couldn't have been the one to stain him.

Aizen leaned an elbow on the table.

"And with your bauble-"

Naraku's gaze drifted to their companion.

"_Jewel_" His enunciation of the word was soft and predatory, yet there was no malice in his tone.

"Excuse me," Aizen responded. His smile stretched. Indeed, they were all three of them, amused. "After we feed your jewel to the hougyoku, your bodies will be transformed."

"Such a foreign occurrence," Orochimaru said.

Aizen inclined his head only slightly, but it was enough.

"Beyond any minor illusions." Aizen spoke as though Orochimaru hadn't faced masters in the art. However, the fact that Itachi sealed him was actually a boon in disguise. Moreover, with his current vessel-Kurosaki, was that this one's name? In any case, the boy was both young and strong.

"Oh, of course. I've always found them to be such pale imitations." Orochimaru's tone was smooth and consistent.

Naraku's features stretched until he resembled Aizen.

"I couldn't agree more," he said, in Aizen's deep baritone. After a moment, he snapped back to his original form.

Aizen closed his eyes in a long, slow blink.

"Transformed in totality until the end of time." The smile still hadn't left his face and Orochimaru doubted it would. His own had not faltered either. Naraku, for his part, was still smirking.

No, their enemies couldn't have imagined it. Akatsuki was one thing. _This_ was beyond everything.

Orochimaru relaxed into his chair. Appearances were deceiving, after all.

"That certainly sounds promising." To possess and keep an excellent vessel forever and ever and ever would be a dream come true.

"And powerful." Naraku's eyes were starting to glow with the same dark intensity of the jewel he rolled so casually in his palm.

"It will be both and more," was Aizen's rejoinder. Orochimaru had to admit that he was a good at this. Sell he had to, sell he would. Orochimaru had been as strong as Aizen while in his original body. With that plus his current vessel's strength, he was now unstoppable. At least by anyone in this room. Therefore, Aizen bargained as Orochimaru or Naraku would have bargained in his place.

"There is much to gain." Naraku's eyes glinted. He continued rolling the dark stone in his palm.

"I'm certain we'll learn all about it. Won't we?" Orochimaru looked at Aizen sidelong.

"Of course," Aizen said. Not that he could have offered any other answer.

"Yet this already responds to my wish." As Naraku spoke, the jewel in his hand seemed to pulse. A putrid pink glowed from beneath layers and layers of black.

"Your heart, you mean."

"This will be like nothing you've experienced before." Aizen delivered the interjection in the same calm manner he had affected since the beginning. Orochimaru might have envied such a mask if he did not already possess one of equal strength.

"A soul-changing event, is it?" Naraku's chuckle was brief but poignant.

Orochimaru met his gaze and smiled.

"Heart, soul, and body," Aizen said.

Orochimaru studied them both at his leisure.

"I don't see why not," he said, at length.

"You have nothing to lose." There was, again, no venom in Naraku's tone. His gaze conveyed enough. Yet Aizen chimed in before dissention could mount.

"There is everything to gain. For us all."

"You wouldn't object to the corruption of the many." What Naraku saw in the humans, especially that little priestess, Orochimaru couldn't fathom. Hollow and Shinigami were far more entertaining to him. Not to mention more powerful-as if he had to worry about such things now. Really, Orochimaru was closer to eternity and godhood than he had ever been.

"The balance is not as tenuous as you might have been lead to believe."

"How interesting to hear a Shinigami talk like that," Orochimaru said.

"Hell has such a large population, after all." Naraku did love his namesake, but it wouldn't be his for much longer.

"You would say that."

Again, Aizen was there.

"For a reason."

"It will only continue to grow." Orochimaru was certain of it. With someone like Naraku tainting every part of the human realm that he could touch, how could it not?

"Under your supervision," Aizen said, his smile stretching again.

"How could I resist?" Really, the more unfortunate souls Naraku sent his way-whether to Hell or Hueco Mundo, it did not matter-the greater his power would be. Still, there was one realm they had yet to discuss.

"We've no conflict," Aizen said.

"Even if I set my sights on Soul Society?" There was a cruel edge to Naraku's smirk that was nothing if not familiar and tantalizing.

"Assuming I don't get there first."

"There is only one place I had in mind." Aizen spoke with the same certainty they all shared. A god's certainty. Naraku seemed to sense it as well for he held open his palm with his fingers splayed out and the jewel gleaming lewd and naked in his palm.

"To goals met and wishes fulfilled," he said.

The hougyoku shivered in the center of the table and they, all three of them, smiled.


End file.
